Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1885 — An Educated Chimpanzee. [ARTICLE]

An Educated Chimpanzee.

I was once the owner of a highly educated chimpanzee. He knew all the friends of the house, all our acquaintances, and distinguished them readily from strangers. Every one treating him kindly he looked upon as a personal friend. He never felt more comfortable than when he was admitted to the family circle and allowed to move freely around, and opeh and shut doors, while his joy was boundless when he was assigned a place at the common table, and the guests admired his natural wit and practical jokes. He expressed his satisfaction and thanks to them by drumming furiously on the table. In his numerous moments of leisure his favorite occupation consisted in investigating carefully every object in his reach; he lowered the door of the stove for the purpose of watching the fire, opened drawers, rummaged boxes’and trunks, and played with their contents, provided the latter did not look suspicious to him. Row easily suspicion was aroused in his mind might be illustrated by the fact that, as long as he lived, he shrank with terror from every common rubber ball. Obedience to my orders and attachment to my person, and to everybody caring for him, were among his cardinal virtues, and he bored me with his persistent wishes to accompany me. He knew perfectly his time for retiring, and was happy when some one of us carried him to the bedroom like a baby. As soon as the light was put out he would jump into the bed and cover himself, because he was afraid of the darkness. His favorite meal was supper with tea, which he was very fond of, provided it was largely sweetened and mixed with rum. He sipped it from the cup, and ate the dipped bread-slices with a spoon, having been taught not to the use the fingers in eating. He poured his wine from the bottle and drank it from the glass. A man could hardly behave himself more gentlemanlike at the table than did that monkey.— Dr. Brehm, in Popular Science Monthly.